I’m writing this post because it’s getting very low ratings. From the reviews that I read, many people say it doesn’t meet their expectations of what a superhero movie should be.

I’m not a capeshit enjoyer. I chose to see Joker 2 because Joker 1 had vague themes of “defunding welfare programs is bad”. In the first movie, Joker loses access to his mental illness medication because the politicians defund the welfare programs and that leads Joker to start doing crimes.

What I liked about Joker 2 is that everyone around him wants to make him miserable, but instead he chooses to be happy. In my opinion, it is the most pure example of absurdity. The whole world wants to make Joker miserable and he is powerless to change other people, but he can deny giving the world what they want so he chooses to laugh. I find that to be entertaining.

The movie was about 60% musical. Whenever Joker starts to hallucinate, everyone starts singing. I think it was okay, but other people did not like that. You probably won’t like the movie if you are expecting it to follow the superhero movie formula.

  • Dr_Gabriel_Aby [none/use name]@hexbear.net
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    2 months ago

    I wish people loved musicals. I feel like they somehow became “cringe” to a vast majority of Americans, and if I were smart I’d make this a much bigger post about consumerism and alienation.

    • the_post_of_tom_joad [any, any]@hexbear.net
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      2 months ago

      I like musicals but only if they’re also comedies. It just a personal preference cuz something in my noodle gets taken out of the immersion when a dance number starts but for comedy the absurdity is fine.

    • Thallo [love/loves]@hexbear.net
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      2 months ago

      I don’t dislike musicals as a rule, but I feel musical has gone beyond being a medium and now more closely resembles a genre insofar as most musicals are just super campy and the music has a particular feeling.

      I’d be more interested if I felt the music was more differentiated or more to my tastes. I like concept albums that tell a story over the whole album. That’s basically a musical, but I actually enjoy the music.

      • Dr_Gabriel_Aby [none/use name]@hexbear.net
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        2 months ago

        I’ve thought a lot about this and yes. I want musicals to be made about times that would actually feel appropriate for song and dance. So modern viewers can get their “grit and realism” the desire from every single genre. A Joe Hill movie specifically comes to mind.

    • Belly_Beanis [he/him]@hexbear.net
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      2 months ago

      I don’t like musicals because most of the songs just annoy me. Heavy Metal (1981) was partially a musical and is one of the best movie soundtracks of all-time. Shame it’s so problematic that even contemporaries ripped into it.

      Sound and the Fury by Sturgil Simpson is like a better, improved Heavy Metal but only features one artist. Luckily he’s great and decided to get weird, making up like 7 new genres of music nobody’s heard before.

    • delirious_owl
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      2 months ago

      There’s very few I like. Sweeny Todd and Bigger Longer Uncut were great.